A conventional wireless cellular telecommunication network is comprised of multiple overlapping coverage areas or “cells.” Mobile units (e.g. cellular telephones) travel from cell to cell while communicating via the network. Handovers between cells occur when the mobile units travel from one cell to another.
Each cell is formed by a base transceiver station (BTS or “base station”). A typical base station comprises multiple transceivers and antennas for sending radio signals to the mobile units within the cell (downlink) and for receiving radio signals from the mobile units within the cell (uplink). Base stations are strategically located so as to maximize communications coverage over large geographical areas. The base stations are communicatively coupled to the cellular telecommunication network via backhaul connections.
The cellular telecommunication network may also include base station controllers (BSCs) and mobile switching centers (MSCs). Several base stations may be under the control of a single BSC. The BSC generally functions as a signal concentrator, allocates radio channels to mobile units and controls handovers from base station to base station. The BSC is, in turn, coupled to an MSC. The MSC generally functions as a telephone exchange to provide circuit switching functionality. The MSC is coupled to a public switched telecommunication network (PSTN) for voice communications and may also be coupled the Internet for data communications.
To prevent interference between the uplink and downlink signaling within each cell, different communication frequencies are used for the uplink and the downlink within each cell. In addition, to prevent interference among adjacent cells, the communication frequencies used within each cell differ from those of adjacent cells.
Due to the need to avoid interference with adjacent cells and other factors, installation and set-up of such cellular networks as well as the integration of new equipment to an existing cellular network can be complex and time consuming.
Further, such cellular telecommunication networks can experience difficulties due to indoor penetration loss. For example, if a mobile unit is located indoors, an additional indoor penetration loss of 8 dB to 30 dB is common. A distributed antenna system (DAS) can be used to provide indoor coverage for wireless communications. In such a DAS, transmitted power is divided among several antennas in distributed locations so as to provide a large coverage area using less transmitted power than would be required by a single antenna system.
As with other equipment, the integration of a distributed antenna system to an existing cellular network can be complex and time consuming. Therefore, there is a need for an improved system for and method of configuring a distributed antenna system.